INTRODUCTION.

The Last Abbot of Whalley.

CHAPTER I.—­THE BEACON ON PENDLE HILL.

There were eight watchers by the beacon on Pendle
Hill in Lancashire. Two were stationed on either
side of the north-eastern extremity of the mountain.
One looked over the castled heights of Clithero; the
woody eminences of Bowland; the bleak ridges of Thornley;
the broad moors of Bleasdale; the Trough of Bolland,
and Wolf Crag; and even brought within his ken the
black fells overhanging Lancaster. The other tracked
the stream called Pendle Water, almost from its source
amid the neighbouring hills, and followed its windings
through the leafless forest, until it united its waters
to those of the Calder, and swept on in swifter and
clearer current, to wash the base of Whalley Abbey.
But the watcher’s survey did not stop here.
Noting the sharp spire of Burnley Church, relieved
against the rounded masses of timber constituting Townley
Park; as well as the entrance of the gloomy mountain
gorge, known as the Grange of Cliviger; his far-reaching
gaze passed over Todmorden, and settled upon the distant
summits of Blackstone Edge.